1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to shelving systems and, more specifically, to gravity flow racks for use in refrigerated dispensers of generally cylindrical- or conical-shaped individual food containers such as disposable yogurt containers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The competing interests of grocers and other retailers in keeping high inventory turnover and consumers in buying the freshest food products available is particularly evident in the refrigerated dairy product aisle of many grocery or convenience stores. Try as grocers may to put older products toward the front of the shelf and newer products toward the rear, consumers invariably rummage through the refrigerated merchandise until they reach the rear of the shelf looking for food package containers bearing later expiration dates. The problem is particularly pervasive with respect to disposable single-serving-size yogurt containers. Such package containers, typically formed as plastic tubs with a relatively slippery surface, have generally cylindrical or conical shapes. This makes the package containers difficult to vertically stack and, when they are so stacked, easy to topple over. They generally have a freshness date or a so-called "sell by" or "age" date stamped in a location that is hidden from view when such containers are stacked, such as on the product's lid.
Consumers have a tendency to disorganize dispenser shelving, and the pre-organized food container arrays on such shelving, to make newer product easier to reach. Furthermore, when restocking conventional, front-loaded flat refrigerated shelves with new product, it is easier for employees to push older product toward the rear of the shelf to make room for new product than it is to properly re-stock the shelf in a manner that keeps the older inventory closest to the consumer, i.e. towards the front of the shelf. Also, such consumer-generated relocation of food containers requires regular re-shelving and reorganizing of such containers, i.e. excessive labor requirements for grocers. All these practices result in less than optimal inventory turnover to the grocers, who are often left with product that remains unsold past its expiration date.
It would therefore be desirable to have a shelving system for use in refrigerated merchandise dispenser units that could organize and maintain individual product containers by date, so that the first product placed into the dispenser is the first product selected by the consumers for purchase, i.e. first-in, first-out.
The use of gravity flow shelving systems to achieve such a first-in, first-out dispenser has been well-known for shelving of large packages found in warehouses, as disclosed in Tipton et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,920, and even for dispensers of smaller consumer items, such as lip gloss, aspirin bottles, soda cans and milk bottles. For example, Merl, U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,763 and Lockwood, U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,282 disclose gravity flow systems directed for such products.
In addition, Coretti, Jr. et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,068, owned by B-O-F Corporation of Aurora, Ill., the assignee of the present invention, discloses a wire mesh gravity flow shelving system marketed under the trademark Milk Moover.RTM., which is well-suited for a variety of sizes and shapes of milk containers and is specifically adapted for use in refrigerated dispenser units. The cartons of milk to be dispensed contact the wire mesh shelves at multiple, i.e. more than two, points along the bottoms of the cartons because the carton makes contact with each of the closely-spaced wires of the shelf that are underneath the carton. Such multiple contact points add friction, which can impede the flow of lighter containers, such as disposable yogurt tub containers, to be dispensed on the shelf.
When directed to such cylindrical- or conical-shaped food product containers, such prior art dispensers suffer from several shortcomings. For example, many depend on the use of a stop in the form a reciprocating stage (as in the Tipton et al. patent), a trip wire (as in the Lockwood patent), or swiveling means taking the form of a diverging curved end wall (as in the Merl patent) to interrupt the gravitational movement of the product being dispensed before the lower-most product is placed in a position for display. In other words, such prior art gravity flow racks lack a design that integrally controls the capture and positioning of the lowest container when it reaches the bottom of the shelf. Such integral control is particularly desirable for products packaged in small, slippery, substantially cylindrical or conical containers, e.g. individual serving plastic yogurt tubs, as these containers have a tendency to topple over easily. If such methods as a trip wire or diverging end wall were used to interrupt the path of these small, odd-shaped plastic tubs in a gravity flow rack system, it would be difficult to predict or rely upon consistent placement of the tubs in a "label-up" display position within a dispenser. Typically, one container might slip over another, and become misaligned in an overall end-to-end array of stacked containers. In a worst case, an entire shelf of food containers could spill onto the floor of the dispenser unit or into a store aisle as successive containers keep toppling over the lower edge of the shelf. Such an unpredictable result is unacceptable.
Several of the gravity flow shelving systems of the prior art utilize inclined roller bearings, inclined smooth flat surfaces, or inclined bent wire frames having closely-spaced wire tracks present to facilitate sliding forward movement of containers stored on the shelves until the containers are tightly stacked against a lower-most container at the front of the dispenser shelf (such as for canned food product, and soft drink cans). However, all of such conventional surfaces are inadequate for reliably controlling the flow and label-up display of slippery, relatively unstable, odd-shaped cylindrical or conical food containers. By "label-up", what is meant is that the consumer product information, such as brand-name, flavor, and ingredients, is presented in a consumer-friendly fashion so that the front of the container bearing such labeling faces the consumer standing in front of the display unit. This is particularly true when the containers need to be stacked in an end-to-end array, that is--top-to-bottom in a manner that simultaneously maximizes storage capacity of the shelving system and discourages consumers from manipulating the position of the containers stacked higher than the lower-most container, e.g. for purposes of finding product bearing a later expiration date than the lower-most container.
A further drawback to the conventional gravity flow systems is cost. Material and manufacturing costs for roller bearing surfaces, low-friction flat surfaces, or even closely-spaced wire mesh-type rack shelving are high compared to the various embodiments of the improved gravity flow system of the present invention. Thus, by using a minimal amount of materials, small cylindrical or conical-shaped packages can be more easily stored on shelving and significant savings in materials and manufacturing costs can be achieved, as compared to the gravity flow systems found in the prior art.
The manner in which the present invention overcomes these and other shortcomings of conventional gravity flow systems for use in dispensing cylindrical or conical-shaped packages such as plastic yogurt containers is explained in the following Summary of the Invention, the Drawings, and the Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments.